A PCR assay was developed for the diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients. For this purpose, the complete nucleotide sequences of the genes encoding the 18S rRNA of Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus flavus were elucidated and aligned to the sequences of Aspergillus fumigatus and other clinically relevant prokaryotic and eukar...

BACKGROUND Infections are a common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The evidence for efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis in reducing the mortality rates and the incidence of bacterial infections was also reported by a systematic review published by Cochrane in 2012. The objective of our study was to report the incidence and the etiology of bloodstre...

lated from sputum samples obtained from 7 patients were not considered to represent systemic infection. Five (16%) of the patients with VRE bacteremia had polymicrobial infections with Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (2 patients), Escherichia coli (1), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (1), and Staphylococcus aureus (1). Most patients (71%) were neutropenic (absolute neutrophil count, !500 cells/mL) when the...

Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) are a well known, lifethreatening complication of neutropenia in haematologic patients. However, IFIs also affect various types of non-neutropenic patients, particularly those admitted in the hospital in critical conditions [1]. Candida spp. infections are mainly documented in intensive care units (ICUs), especially in patients undergone to major surgery, recei...